Bridget Riley, leading artist of the Op Art movement.
The British artist Bridget Riley rose to prominence in the 1960s as a result of her Op Art pieces, which cleverly use colour and geometric shapes and patterns to create disorientating optical illusions, giving the impression the two-dimensional artworks are moving before the viewer’s very eyes.
Riley’s work has grown steadily in popularity over the years, and her pieces are especially sought-after in the United Kingdom. Her art has been widely commercialised and, in some cases, freely copied by designers; despite this, there is still strong interest in her prints, which account for 78% of her work sold at auction, and which usually fetch between £1,000 and £5,000.
If you own a Bridget Riley print and you’d like to find out how much it is worth, or how to sell it, why not get in touch with Mark Littler today? Below is a list of Bridget Riley’s six most sought-after prints.
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Untitled (Oval Image)
This 1964 print almost doubled its estimated £25,000 to £35,000 when it was sold by Phillips in June 2024 for £65,000. It dates from just two years after Riley held her first solo show at Victor Musgrave’s Gallery One in London, and it is a fine example of her work during this period. Throughout the early to mid-1960s, Riley worked almost exclusively in black and white, creating images which, like this one, employ deceptively-simple geometric forms to create complex optical illusions.
Untitled (Oval Image) sold by Phillips in 2024
Green Dominance/Blue Dominance/Red Dominance
1967 was the year that marked Bridget Riley’s transition to colour; she mostly abandoned her previous monochrome palette and started to explore different tones and hues, and the way colours affect each other when placed in close proximity. Initially, she focused on patterns that used parallel vertical or horizontal stripes, but in the 1970s, Riley started combining colours and curves, saying she was drawn “to bands of coloured stripes in which all the colours, in turn, cross over or twist around the others.” This print from 1977 is exemplary of her work during that time, and it was sold by Hindman Auctions in April 2023 for £56,229, which was double its estimated price.
Green Dominance/Blue Dominance/Red Dominance sold by Hindman Auctions in 2023
Untitled (Based on Blaze)
Though Riley has stated numerous times that she never studied optics, it is sometimes hard to believe when looking at her work. This print from 1964 was sold by Forum Auction in December 2016 for £43,000, and the intense optical illusion it creates has a disorientating effect on the viewer, as if we’re being sucked down into the centre of the print whilst the surrounding concentric circles move in different directions.
Untitled (Based on Blaze) sold by Forum Auctions in 2016
Firebird
Riley began incorporating colour into her work from the late 1960s onwards, particularly in the form of vertical or horizontal bands of colour. She stated the decision came about because she “had to give visual sensation more rein.” She said: “my black-and-white paintings had been about states of being… but when I introduced colour in 1967 this began to change. Colour inevitably leads you to the world outside.”
Firebird, dating from 1971, is an example of Riley’s carefully-designed paintings in which colour plays a key role, with strips of red, blue, and green merging into each other, intercut by ribbons of white. The print was sold for £42,000 – £30,000 over its estimated price – when it was auctioned by Sotheby’s in March 2021.
Firebird sold by Sotheby’s in 2021
Untitled (Fragment 1)
This print comes from the Fragments series, a collection of six monochrome prints from 1965 which emerged from studies Riley was making in preparation for other paintings. In her own words, this exploration of shapes allowed her to “take a form through its paces in order to find out what it can do.” The Fragments series contains some of Riley’s most recognisable and sought-after work; this particular print was sold by Sotheby’s in September 2021 for £42,000.
Untitled (Fragment 1) sold by Sotheby’s in 2021
Ra (Inverted)
Bridget Riley once said: “In the straight line, I had one of the most fundamental forms. The line has direction and length; it lends itself to simple repetition, and by its regularity it simultaneously supports and counteracts the fugitive fleeting character of colour.” The colours in Ra (Inverted) were inspired by the artist’s trip to Egypt in the early 1980s; upon returning, she created several series using warm hues and vibrant colours, including Ka and Ra.
Ra (Inverted) is a take on the original series from the ‘80s, and, as with much of Riley’s work, it has a timeless quality. Though the artist is now in her nineties, she is continuing to create art, and it continues to fetch high prices at auction: Ra (Inverted) was sold in September 2023 by Christie’s for £35,000.
Ra (Inverted) sold by Christie’s in 2023
